Take a bow New Brunswick. You officially (according to me) have the most breweries (per capita) in Canada. New Brunswick and its neighbouring Atlantic provinces have witnessed the biggest brewery boom in the country over the last two years. The… Continue Reading →
The results of the 2020 Canadian Brewing Awards came out this past weekend, and the big surprise of the night was the number of medals scooped up by Alberta breweries. Alberta-based breweries won 38 medals, including 17 golds, and Calgary’s… Continue Reading →
Parallel to the judging of the 2020 Alberta Beer Awards back in February, which seems like forever ago, Raft Beer Labs ran some analytical tests on a portion of the competition entries. While I was holidaying a couple weeks back,… Continue Reading →
Over the past few years provincial governments across the country of various partisan stripes have happily gathered the local media to proclaim grand “loosening” of liquor laws. Most of the time these announcements end up being pretty thin gruel –… Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago we were on our way to a socially-distanced visit in a friend’s backyard and my spouse needed some wine. So I dropped into a strip mall mom-and-pop liquor store on the way to pick up whatever… Continue Reading →
Happy Canada Day! It may be one of the most half-baked and amateurishly implemented marketing campaigns in recent memory, but it got people talking, I guess. I am referring to the campaign launched a couple weeks ago by Molson Coors… Continue Reading →
Releasing a book during COVID-19 must be an author’s nightmare. No real opportunities to promote the book, no in-store sales. Only word of mouth to work with. Not ideal. Such is the case for Scott Messenger, an Edmonton-based writer and… Continue Reading →
This is one of those stories that is part-COVID-19 and part-longer term trend. We have all seen the shift craft breweries in this part of the world have been making to cans. That has been taking place for the past… Continue Reading →
News came last week that brewery taprooms and brewpubs (along with other licensees except nighclubs) will be included in the first phase of the Alberta government COVID-19 re-opening strategy, with restrictions. This news came as a bit of a surprise… Continue Reading →
A couple weeks ago I sat down (virtually) with Dalen Landis of Grain Bin Brewing in Grande Prairie. During the COVID crisis, he has been doing a series of informal conversations with various local personalities (including the Mayor!), people with… Continue Reading →